AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 153 



cloths were made of hemp, and linen was always more or less in 

 use, yet not very generally until the fourteenth century. There 

 was likewise some production of dyestuffs. 



Neither did commerce make any large demands upon medieval 

 agriculture. There was but one commodity of English production 

 which was exported to any extent, and that was wool. England 

 was at this period the great wool-producing country of northern 

 Europe, its moist and equable climate peculiarly adapting it to 

 grazing. This was exported chiefly to Flanders, which was the 

 principal seat of the manufacturing industry ; but in the course 

 of the fourteenth century numbers of Flemings driven away 

 by the disorders and misgovernment of their native land, and 

 perhaps partly by the inundations upon their coast, and attracted 

 by the prosperity and freedom of England settled in the 

 eastern counties and established woolen manufactories there 

 the commencement of the manufacturing industry which has 

 raised England to its present wealth and power. 



Wool, therefore, was the one great staple of England, whether 

 for manufacture or for export ; for home consumption too, so far 

 as clothing is concerned. The raising of sheep, which had always 

 been an important branch of industry, assumed large dimensions 

 toward the close of the Middle Ages, and even encroached greatly 

 upon operations which were more strictly agricultural in their 

 nature. Neat cattle were also produced, and, for purposes of food, 

 large quantities of swine always the principal animal food in 

 rural communities. The great oak and beech forests of England 

 afforded sustenance for great herds of these. Their capabilities 

 were carefully examined and recorded, and in every manor the 

 woods are given as of fifty or a hundred or five hundred swine. 

 The cattle of all kinds were small ; the average weight of oxen 

 purchased for the royal navy in 1547 was 430 pounds, and this 

 is no doubt about the average of the earlier centuries. The weight 

 of a fleece of wool was rarely over 10 pounds. The dairy was 

 also an important branch of industry, both for cheese and butter. 

 It is a curious fact that butter, usually sold by the gallon, was con- 

 siderably cheaper than lard and other animal fats so much so 

 as to be used for greasing wheels and for similar purposes. The 



